In 2009, Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an American geologist,
visits astrophysicist Dr. Satnam Tsurutani (Jimi Mistry) in India and learns that neutrinos from a massive solar flare
are causing the temperature of the Earth's core to increase. Adrian informs White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser
(Oliver Platt) and United States President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover) that this will trigger a catastrophic chain of
natural disasters.In 2010, Wilson, along with other international leaders, begins a secret project intended to
ensure humanity's survival. Approximately 400,000 people are chosen to board ships called "arks" that are constructed at
Cho Ming, Tibet, in the Himalayas. Additional funding for the project is raised by selling tickets to the private sector
for €1 billion per person. By 2011, humanity's valuable treasures are moved to the Himalayas under the guise of
protecting them from terrorist attacks with the help of art expert/First Daughter Dr. Laura Wilson (Thandie Newton) when
she meets with the Louvre director Roland Picard (Patrick Bauchau).In 2012, Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is a
science fiction writer in Los Angeles who works part-time as a limousine driver for billionaire Yuri Karpov (Zlatko
Buric). Jackson's ex-wife Kate (Amanda Peet) and their children Noah (Liam James) and Lilly (Morgan Lily) live with
Kate's boyfriend, plastic surgeon and amateur pilot Gordon Silberman (Thomas McCarthy).Jackson takes Noah and
Lilly camping in Yellowstone National Park. After their encounter with Dr. Helmsley, Jackson and the kids meet Charlie
Frost (Woody Harrelson) who hosts a radio show from the park. That night, Charlie plays a video of Charles Hapgood's
theory that polar shifts and the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar predict that the 2012 phenomenon is going to occur. He
has a map of the ark project in addition to information about government officials and scientists from around the world
who were murdered after planning to alert the public about the project and the upcoming apocalypse.The family
returns home as seismic activity increases along the west coast of the United States. Jackson grows suspicious and rents
a plane to rescue his family. He collects his family and Gordon as the Earth crust displacement begins, and they escape
Los Angeles first using a limousine and then a Cessna 340 as the city slides into the Pacific Ocean in a mega earthquake
that ruptures the San Andreas Fault.As millions die in catastrophic earthquakes worldwide, the group flies to
Yellowstone to retrieve Charlie's map, escaping as the Yellowstone Caldera erupts. Staying behind to broadcast the
eruption, Charlie is killed in the blast. Learning the arks are in China, the group lands in Las Vegas. They meet Yuri,
his twin sons Alec and Oleg (Alexandre Haussmann and Philippe Haussmann), girlfriend Tamara (Beatrice Rosen) and pilot
Sasha (Johann Urb). The group secures an Antonov 500 aircraft and departs for China. Also heading for the arks aboard
Air Force One are Anheuser, Helmsley and Laura Wilson. President Wilson chooses to remain in Washington, D.C. to address
the nation one last time. With the Vice President dead and the Speaker of the House missing, Anheuser assumes de facto
leadership. President Wilson is later killed by a megatsunami that sends the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy
crashing into the White House.Arriving in People's Republic of China in a crash landing that kills Sasha, the
group is spotted by the People's Liberation Army. Yuri and his sons, possessing tickets, are taken to the arks by PRC
air force, left the rest and Tamara behind. Meanwhile in Eastern India, Satnam phones Helmsley to warn him about a
megatsunami that would arrive at the location of the arks earlier than expected. Satnam is then killed along with his
family and other Indians scaling the Nampan Plateau when the airlift for his family never showed up. Then the Curtis
family, Gordon and Tamara are picked up by Nima (Osric Chau), a Buddhist monk on his way to the arks with his
grandparents (Lisa Lu and Chang Tseng). They stow away with the help of Nima's brother Tenzin (Chin Han), who has been
working on the ark project's construction crew. As a megatsunami approaches the site, an impact driver becomes lodged
between the gears of the ark's Hydraulics Chamber, preventing a boarding gate from closing and rendering the ship unable
to start its engines. In the ensuing chaos, Yuri, Gordon and Tamara are killed, Tenzin is wounded, and the flooding ark
is set adrift. Jackson and Noah dislodge the impact driver and the crew regains control of the ark, preventing a
collision with Mount Everest.After flood waters from the tsunamis recede, the arks set sail for the Cape of Good
Hope in South Africa where the Drakensberg Mountains have risen in relation to sea level and become the tallest
mountains in the world. Jackson is reconciled with his family and Helmsley starts a relationship with Laura. The film
ends with the camera panning out to show Africa surrounded entirely by water.